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Once only available as painted door option with a heavy warning about south facing doors, now readily available. Gliderol were the first to offer us black sectional doors made from pre-finished steel and since then Garage Door Systems and Teckentrup also have pre-finished black doors within their offerings. For what seems like such an obvious standard colour option to the consumer it’s been a long time coming.

We had always been told that black sectional garage doors absorbed more heat and were therefore more likely to de-laminate and so weren’t a good idea, particularly in south facing conditions. This is still the case with Hormann who ask you to sign a disclaimer for black doors which is possibly the most effective means of turning a customer off a product and most likely the brand too. Surly though Hormann wouldn’t do this without good reason ? We have ourselves had a black Gliderol panel de-laminate though we have no way of knowing if the same thing wouldn’t have happened if the door was another colour.

So are pre-finished black sectionals an affordable way to give the consumer what they want and the doorway to more sales or if we ever get a hot summer will we be replacing them all?

As the end of the financial year comes round and we see yet again more price increases there have also been some new garage doors and options on existing doors released into the market.

Hormann/Garador have released a new up and over garage door panel called the Caxton in the Hormann range and Sutton in the Garador range. The panel is quite attractive and is similar to a Carlton/Vertical but with a border. In the Hormann price list the Caxton is £179 more than the Vertical, so it is quite an expensive border. It also comes at a higher cost than the Georgian panel doors. Garador have forgotten to include the Sutton in their price list so we’re not sure how much they intend to charge. Garador have also introduced 5 new timber up and over designs and a new timber side hinged product in 3 designs. The timber side hinged doors use the same steel frame and leaf chassis as the steel side hinged doors but with a timber infill.

Teckentrup Depot have released a new insulated side hinged garage door. The door is made up of the same Carteck sections used on their sectional garage doors and comes with an aluminium threshold, sash lock and lever handles and flush bolts. The side hinged door is quite expensive against the Carteck sectional door with a 2286mm wide door working out at £383 more at list. The insulated side hinged door is however a unique product and is bound to be desireable to all those retired engineers out there using their garages as ‘workshops’.

In the last few years there have been many newcomers to the sectional garage doors market and slowly but surely some of them seem to be making a big contribution to a change in the styles and sizes of sectional doors we sell.

Go back 5 years and the only sectional doors that were readily available were a small selection of slightly different Georgain panel designs from different manufacturers, a narrow horizontal rib and a wide horizontal rib door; all with a woodgrain finish. Of course other styles and finishes have always been available but on a long lead time and at a much higher cost. Now with companies like Teckentrup Depot and Gliderol there is an incresed range of panel styles and more importantly the smooth finish as a no cost option. This has introduced some good healthy competition into the UK sectional market. Not a conclusive test by any means but in our own business we’ve found that without a price or lead time difference most of our customers prefer a smooth finish sectional door to one with a woodgrain finish.

The other big reason brands like these and Garage Door Systems have been able to create a market for themselves is the ability to mix and match heights & widths in the price lists which can often save money in the avoidance of cut down charges and can save weeks (or months!) off lead times. The pricelists are simple with good continuity on lead times accross the product ranges which are things that Novoferm and the industry leaders Hormann/Garador could learn a thing or two from.

Many garage door manufacturers have already increased their prices this year. It is obvious to expect the same from other manufacturers but we should all be prepared for further increases on top of that.

As the greedy mining and oil giants continue to push up prices of raw materials in turn the steel companies must pass this on to our garage door manufacturers. Garage Door Systems after one price increase this year are already warning that another may be soon to come.

Whilst these price increases don’t mean that the recovery within our industry is going to grind to a halt, it’s fair to say that this combined with the coalition cuts in the public sector and the threat to pensions that BP has caused will not help our businesses.

The former BRP Group as I’m sure you are aware has now been split up in to the smaller brands that created it and sold off where possible. This is the latest new I have. Some things have been difficult to confirm so I apologise if any of this is incorrect.

There has been no buyer for Henderson, the factory at Bowburn has closed and the website has been taken down.

Cardale has been bough by Steve Hobbs former director at BRP and Jeremy Baker of The Garage Door Company.

Steel Line has been bought by Gliderol and closed down.

Chamberlain Doors have bought Wessex and plan to continue manufacturing and supplying the garage door industry with GRP panel doors.

Will this change the way you buy? Are you glad to see that some parts of BRP have been bought in order to keep competition in the UK market, or do you now see buying from Cardale and Wessex as supporting competitors?

As I’m sure most readers of this blog will be aware, suppliers of canopy doors that are automated and use a bow arm converter must be able to prove that the combination of door, bow arm and operator have been tested together to comply with BS EN 12453.

The majority of bow arm installations are to an existing door that have generally been installed well over 10 years ago making it impossible to comply with the standard. So assuming that garage door specialists are interested in complying with the standard then surely this drop in sales for manufacturers will be the death of the bow arm.

It will be interesting to see if this void ever gets filled. Even now canopy doors are a big part of the UK garage door market with most big building companies still fitting them on their developments. There is the Cardale Autoglide but I’m yet to meet an installer who has much love for it. Perhaps if this design could be improved up on then there would be a safe and easy way to automate canopy doors.

As the world gets ever more environmentally conscious and energy prices rise people are becoming and/or wanting to become more aware of how much energy and money they’re wasting. When the garage is an integral part of the house the garage door is usually the largest opening in the home and since many houses have the boiler in the garage the potential for energy loss is huge.

What I think is needed is a proper energy rating like there is for fridges, dishwashers, windows etc. I know that most manufacturers of insulated roller garage doors and sectional garage doors publish the U value of their doors but to most people this means nothing. An example of what a simple energy rating chart could look like is shown below.

This chart is something that most people are now familiar with from white goods and is something everyone can understand. Garage doors being rated in this way would help more people to understand both the financial and environmental savings that having an insulated garage door can make.

The benefits to garage door installers and manufacturers? We’d sell more insulated garage doors! More people would replace their doors for the benefit of saving money in the long-term rather than waiting until the door is so old it’s no longer useable.